Neighborhood Nonprofit Spotlight: Pet Community Center

Patch talks to Pet Community Center about the support and care it provides to neglected animals in the Nashville area.

Patch: Tell Patch a little bit about your organization!

Pet Community Center: Pet Community Center was founded in 2011 by individuals who were concerned at the number of homeless pets in Nashville and the high shelter euthanasia rate. In 2010 nearly 13,000 pets came into the Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control shelter and 80% of them were euthanized. We started looking at other communities who saved 90% or more of their shelter pets by drastically lowering the number of animals entering their shelter. Through our research we discovered Nashville did not have enough available spay/neuter surgeries.

We needed approximately 10,000 additional low-cost and free surgeries annually in order to achieve the same result. We opened our spay/neuter clinic in June 2014 and since then we’ve served more than 15,000 dogs and cats. This has led to dramatic reductions in pet homelessness and shelter euthanasia. Our clinic is available to everyone; you don’t have to qualify to use our low-cost services. We have financial aid available for anyone who needs additional assistance. We offer spay/neuter, vaccinations, microchips, de-worming, flea/tick/heartworm medication and other services at our East Nashville clinic and on our mobile clinic, which travels throughout Davidson County.

Patch: How does your organization help to strengthen the local community?

Pet Community Center: We are working to end pet overpopulation and help Nashville become a city that saves all the healthy, treatable shelter pets. We know that prevention is the most powerful tool, so we focus on providing services that prevent pet homelessness. We provide low-cost and free veterinary care to aid pet families in keeping their pets happy, healthy, and in their home. We also collaborate with more than 20 other animal welfare agencies to provide services to rescue animals and pets of low income residents.

Patch: What is the biggest struggle your organization faces?

Pet Community Center: One of our biggest challenges is awareness. We are a relatively new organization and our clinic is only two years old. We've been doing a lot of marketing and grassroots outreach to let people know we exist and how easy it is to use our services. We hope everyone who reads this article will tell another pet lover about us so we can spread the word and help more pets.

Patch: What do you hope for the future of your nonprofit?

Pet Community Center: We hope for the day that all homeless pets find a loving home and no healthy, treatable animal is euthanized because of pet overpopulation. We hope to grow and expand our programs so we can help Nashville and Middle Tennessee become a community that has accessible veterinary care for pet owners of all income levels.

Photo by Pet Community Center